This is such a great jack, but I just have no occasion to use it since I have the Quickjack. Rather than having it occupy valuable real estate under my stairs, I am looking to sell it. I'm asking $130. It was easily double that brand new. Let me know if you are interested. Local pick-up only. Click here to view the specifications for this awesome jack.  

I am so glad the weather has turned Spring-like. Not because I want to tiptoe through the tulips, but because I want to finally give my SQ5 the spring cleaning it so richly deserves. The outside and inside are immaculate, but the undercarriage and wheel wells are still coated with a thick layer of winter muck. I spent the better part of two days giving the neglected regions of my car some attention. With the QuickJack, I was able to pull the wheels off and perform over twelve hours of care to the car with it safely perched in the air. This makes getting to the undercarriage and wheel wells incredibly easy and satisfying. I put a lot of work into capturing the art of this process and I hope you will find the video as satisfying as I do. I will include links to most of the products and tools I used for this project below. Happy spring everyone! 

It's an ongoing battle keeping the garage clean, but I enjoy the process. I was able to do a full wash of the floor yesterday and then my son and I filmed a guided tour video. Check them out: 

A buddy of mine hadn't mounted his winter wheels all winter, but we had a pretty brutal blizzard hit this weekend. He brought his car over and we did the swap using my QuickJack portable lift system. Due to the snow he tracked in under his car and in the wheel wells, I was left with a bit of a tidying up once the job was complete. No worries. 

My buddies at QuickJack sent me these cool wall hangers recently. I used to store my QJ frame units horizontally under my Thule roof box, but now I have them hanging vertically on the opposite side of that big wall. I took the opportunity to repaint a large portion of the wall and install some shelves I had in the basement. Things worked out great. Here's a video as well as some photos showing the progress and final result. 

I finally mounted my summer wheels. This is an annual process that usually happens in early to mid-May, but this year I ended up putting it off to June for the first time ever. My Quickjack makes the process quick and easy, but I inevitably spend hours detailing the winter wheels which involves prying each and every stone out of the treads. It is a painstaking process that leaves me with blisters every year, but it simply must be done. 

I have been an admirer of this garage for years, so I was pumped when the owner agreed to having it featured on my humble blog. This is a true car lover's dream garage that I really hope to one day see in the flesh. Everything you see here was created by the owner with the help of his family. I have followed each evolutionary change that he has made and the level of execution is simply amazing. You can learn a lot more about the history of this garage by checking out the build thread on garagejournal.com or his photo album on Photobucket. It's amazing to see how Chad and his family transformed this regular garage into something truly special and unique. 

Our friend came by last weekend to photograph my garage. Heather is super talented and I am very pleased with the final results of her work. Here's a little gallery highlighting her talent and the beauty of my place!

If you click, on "Automotive and Tires" on the main page of the Costco website, you will see a large advertisement for the QuickJack portable lift featuring a stunning photo of my old SQ5 in my garage. Over the years, I have been fortunate to have formed some wonderful relationships with some of my favorite retailers. The team at QuickJack and I have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship since I first added a QuickJack to my garage back in the Spring of 2016 and I am pleased to see these amazing shots getting some good press.  

My two weeks of holidays have come to an end. I really enjoy the vacation time we teachers get, and I was able to accomplish quite a bit in terms of the garage and SQ5. I performed an extensive detail on two friends' cars as well as a thorough detail on my own. I had the opportunity to experiment with almost all the products sent to me from Jay Leno's Garage and I have to admit, they are spectacular. I am still in the process of collecting my thoughts on their performance and I will be posting my review shortly, so stay tuned for that. I helped a friend swap over to his summer wheels using my QuickJack, and I also swapped over to my Spring/Fall setup.  

The extra time allowed me to create videos that comprehensively demonstrate the extent I go to when maintaining my ride.  Check them out if you have the time:

The people over at QuickJack put a video together demonstrating how their lift can withstand soap and water.  They included some footage from a video I shot in the early summer.  Worth a look: 

If you follow my YouTube channel, you will have seen that I posted a video demonstrating my wheel swap process. The weather has been extraordinarily mild this year, but I don't like getting caught off guard, so I installed my winter setup which consists of Blizzak LM-60's on 20" Hartmann wheels. This was the first time I swapped wheels on the SQ5 without having to use my floor jack at each corner. My QuickJack BL-5000 SLX made quick work of lifting the SQ off the ground. If you want to see a guy having a lot of fun playing with his car, check out the video below:  

With my permission, Quickjack is using photos of my garage for their online marketing of the QuickJack lift system.  It is pretty cool to see my garage getting this kind of exposure.  Here's a screen shot from the Quickjack.com website.  They have introduced a character named "Jack" to answer questions about the system.  I wonder if Jack's physical appearance should have been based on me, but I'll leave that for you to decide.  

I bribed my photographer friend, Geoff to snap some more shots of my garage.  This time, I wanted to focus on some of the work I perform in the garage (detailing, wheel swaps) as well as some of the main equipment I use.  The QuickJack got quite a bit of camera time, and I'm very eager to see how the shots turned out.  Geoff sent me this teaser pic, so I hope the rest are just as cool.  Stay tuned.  

We've owned the SQ5 for 2.5 years and it is still on the brakes it came with.  The only issue we've had is with some corrosion around the rotor hats.  So, with the help of my QuickJack, I put the car in the air today and hit each hat with a coat of high-heat paint.   The job took two hours.  ​Here's a slideshow that demonstrates the steps I went to.

I had the opportunity this past weekend to perform a "wheel off" wash.  Using my QuickJack lift, I was able to remove all four wheels and really concentrate on the wheels and wells.  I put together a five-minute video to demonstrate how useful the lift is.  Enjoy. 

The QuickJack does what it says it does, and it lifted my SQ5 in fine fashion.  I was very pleased that the even weight distribution of the QuickJack meant there were no divots or impressions in my RaceDeck Free Flow floor.  Here's some shots, but you'll have to excuse the current state of the SQ5, it has been a busy and messy week.  We actually had some snow on Thursday.  

My new QuickJack portable lift system arrived this week.  After hauling in home from the shipyard in my SQ5, it has been sitting in the middle of the garage.  I was under the weather today, and spent all day in bed.  I finally got up some energy so I decided to head out to the garage to assemble and test this puppy out.  The detailed instructions made assembly a fairly painless process and it seems to be working well.  I quickly ran out of gas, so I haven't had the opportunity to lift my vehicle with it.  Once I feel a little better, I plan to put the SQ5 on it and see what happens.  I'm hoping to find some time over the weekend to spruce up my rusty brake rotor hats, so stay tuned.  I'm quite curious to see how things go with the RaceDeck floor.  I think it should be fine, but I will keep you posted.  

The main reason I went with the QuickJack lift was the portability factor.  I will probably use it a dozen times per year, so I didn't want something that was going to permanently occupy valuable real estate in my double garage when not in use.  Its low profile design enabled me to slide each section away so it won't get in the way of the other happenings in the garage.  

The other reason I chose this over a scissor or two-post life is that it is tailored more towards my needs.  I plan on using it primarily for wheel swaps and detailing, so I don't need my car way up in the air.  At max height, it should provide me with a foot of body lift which will make a world of difference when polishing the lower portion of my SQ5 and detailing my wheels and wheel wells.  I think it was the perfect solution for my needs.  

​Click here to learn more about the BL-5000SLX.